File access service

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for facilitating access to files that are stored by network-accessible file storage services. An example system comprises a plurality of file access nodes including a control node, wherein the control node is configured to: receive a file access request initiated by a client, wherein the file access request comprises an identifier of a file, an identifier of a file storage service, and an access token associated with the file stored by the file storage service; request, using the access token, metadata associated with the file from the file storage service; define, using the metadata, a plurality of portions forming the file; and forward, to the plurality of file access nodes, identifiers of the plurality of portions.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates to file access methods, and moreparticularly, to file access services facilitating access to files thatare stored by network-accessible file storage services.

BACKGROUND

“File storage service” herein shall refer to a public or privatenetwork-accessible service that is capable of servicing users' requestswith respect to storing or retrieving files identified by theirrespective file names.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure is illustrated by way of examples, and not by wayof limitation, and may be more fully understood with references to thefollowing detailed description when considered in connection with thefigures, in which:

FIG. 1 depicts a high-level network diagram of an example distributedcomputer system, in which the systems and methods described herein maybe implemented;

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an example sequence diagram of aworkflow facilitating access to files that are stored bynetwork-accessible file storage services, in accordance with one or moreaspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 depicts a flow diagram of one illustrative example of methodperformed by a control node for facilitating access to files that arestored by network-accessible file storage services, in accordance withone or more aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of one illustrative example of methodperformed by a file access node for facilitating access to files thatare stored by network-accessible file storage services, in accordancewith one or more aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 depicts a flow diagram of one illustrative example of methodperformed by a client computing device for accessing files that arestored by network-accessible file storage services, in accordance withone or more aspects of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts a block diagram of an example computer system that mayimplement the methods of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Described herein are systems and methods for facilitating access tofiles that are stored by network-accessible file storage services.

A user may employ one or more public or private file storage servicesfor storing and retrieving various files, e.g., electronic documents,media content files, executable files, etc. However, most file storageservices would only provide the basic file access functionality, e.g.,streaming a file to a client computing device over a single connection,with or without the ability to re-start and continue an interrupteddownload session at a specified position within the file. Even if thefile storage service supports streaming a file to a client computingdevice over multiple simultaneous connections, the overall downloadperformance is limited by the bandwidth of the client's networkconnection to the service.

Systems and methods of the present disclosure improve the reliabilityand efficiency of the file access operations by providing a file accessservice that includes a plurality of file access nodes, each of whichmay, independently of its peer file access nodes, serve to the client atleast a portion of the requested file, by retrieving the portion of thefile from the local cache or by acting as a proxy in streaming theportion of the file from the file storage service to the client, whileoptionally storing in the local cache the file portion being streamed.

Responsive to receiving a file access request initiated by a clientcomputing device, each of the file access nodes may determine the numberof file portions that it may stream to the requesting client withoutdeteriorating own performance metrics beyond certain pre-determinedthresholds, as described in more details herein below. Conversely, theclient-side logic distributes the file access requests among multiplefile access nodes, as described in more details herein below. Thus, thesystems and methods described herein represent improvements to thefunctionality of general purpose or specialized computing devices, byproviding a file access service that optimizes the bandwidth usage byeach of the file access nodes and the client computing device, whileproviding the reliable file access operations irrespective of one ormore file access node failures.

The systems and methods described herein may be implemented by hardware(e.g., general purpose and/or specialized processing devices, and/orother devices and associated circuitry), software (e.g., instructionsexecutable by a processing device), or a combination thereof. While theillustrative examples described herein below reference file downloadoperations, same or similar methods may, without limitation, be appliedto performing file upload operations. Various aspects of the abovereferenced methods and systems are described in details herein below byway of examples, rather than by way of limitation.

FIG. 1 depicts a high-level network diagram of an example distributedcomputer system 100, in which the systems and methods described hereinmay be implemented. As schematically illustrated by FIG. 1, a user of apublic or private file storage service 110 may need to access, by theclient computing device 120, one or more files residing on the filestorage service 110. In various illustrative examples, the clientcomputing device 120 may be provided by a mobile computing device (suchas a smartphone), a personal computer, or by any other suitablecomputing device equipped with a network interface and a user interface(such as a graphical user interface).

In certain implementations, the file storage service 110 may provide thebasic file access functionality, e.g., streaming a file to the clientcomputing device 120 over a single connection, and the ability tore-start and continue an interrupted download session at a specifiedposition within the file. In accordance with one or more aspects of thepresent invention, the file download operations with respect to auser-requested file may be performed by two or more file access nodes130A-130N coordinated by the control node 130C, thus improving theoverall efficiency and reliability of the file access operations.

Each of file access nodes 130A-130N may, independently of other fileaccess nodes, serve to the client computing device 120 at least aportion of the requested file, by retrieving the portion of the filefrom the local cache or by acting as a proxy in streaming the portion ofthe file from the file storage service 110 to the client computingdevice 120, while optionally storing in the local cache the file portionbeing streamed. Each file access node 130 may be communicatively coupledto the Internet 140 via one or more routers, firewalls, load balancers,and/or other auxiliary components that are omitted from FIG. 1 forclarity. At least one of the file access nodes 130, denoted herein asnode 130C, may be designated as a control node, and may coordinate theactivities performed by other file access nodes, as described in moredetails herein below. In certain implementations, the control node mayfurther act as a file access node with respect to at least certainclient computing devices and/or at least certain files.

The distributed computer system 100 may further comprise one or morecloud infrastructure brokers 150 employed to communicate with clientcomputing devices 120 and coordinate the operation of various componentsof the example distributed computer system 100. While the cloudinfrastructure broker 150 can be installed on a dedicated hardwareserver, one or more cloud infrastructure brokers 150 may alternativelybe collocated with a file access node 130 (e.g., the control node 130C)on a single hardware server. In certain implementations, the distributedcomputer system 100 may further comprise various additional componentswhich have been omitted from FIG. 1 for conciseness and clarity.

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates an example sequence diagram 200 of aworkflow facilitating access to files that are stored bynetwork-accessible file storage services, in accordance with one or moreaspects of the present disclosure. As schematically illustrated by FIG.2, the client computing device 120 may, upon successfully establishing asession (205) with the file storage service 110, receive (210) one ormore session keys, file access tickets, and/or other digital artifacts(referred to herein as “access tokens”) that may be presented to thefile storage service 110 for receiving access to one or moreuser-specified files. The client computing device 120 may then securelytransmit (215) the access tokens to the control node 130C (e.g., via thecloud infrastructure broker 150, which is omitted from FIG. 2 forconciseness and clarity), in association with a file access requestidentifying one or more files and the file storage service 110 thatstores the requested files.

Responsive to receiving the file access request, the control node 130Cmay utilize the received access token to request (220) the file storageservice 110 to provide, for each file specified by the file accessrequest, the metadata associated with the file. The file metadata (225)may include the file size and other parameters of the file.

The control node 130C may then identify one or more file access nodes130 that may be employed to serve portions of the file to the clientcomputing device 120. In an illustrative example, the control node mayidentify a certain number of file access nodes that currently have theminimal, among all nodes, workload. Alternatively, the control node mayidentify a subset of the file access nodes 130 that are geographicallyclosest to the client computing device 120. The number of control nodesmay be determined based on the file size, e.g., by dividing the filesize by a pre-determined value. Alternatively, the control node mayidentify all available file access nodes 130. As noted herein above, thecontrol node may further act as a file access node with respect to atleast certain client computing devices and/or at least certain files.

Responsive to identifying the file access nodes to serve the clientrequest, the control node 130C may forward (230) the file metadata andthe file access token to the identified file access nodes 130. The filemetadata may include the file size, the size of a portion of the file tobe transmitted to the client computing device, and/or a list ofidentifiers of the file portions. A file portion may be identified byits ordinal number in the sequence of file portions of a given fileand/or by the offset of the respective portion relative to the top ofthe file. The control node 130C may further forward (235) a list ofidentified file access nodes and the file metadata to the clientcomputing device 120 (e.g., via the cloud infrastructure broker 150).

Responsive to receiving the list of file access nodes designated forservicing the current file access request, the client computing device120 may select one or more file access nodes for further requestingportions of the file. In an illustrative example, the client computingdevice 120 may ping the file access nodes and select one or more nodesdemonstrating the best response time. In another illustrative example,the client computing device 120 may select one or more nodes associatedwith the network connections having the maximum available bandwidthamong the network connections to the plurality of file access nodes. Theclient computing device 120 may then poll (240) the selected file accessnodes 130 to request a list of available file portions.

A file access node 130 being polled may optionally ascertain whether anyof the file portions are stored in the local cache, and if so, return(245) to the client computing device a list of identifiers of such fileportions. Additionally or alternatively, the file access node 130 maydetermine the number of file portions that it may stream to the clientcomputing device 120 without deteriorating own performance metricsbeyond certain pre-determined thresholds. In an illustrative example,the file access node 130 may estimate the available network bandwidth tothe file storage service 110 and to the client computing device 120and/or the round-trip time to the file storage service 110 and to theclient computing device 120. Should the available network bandwidthexceed a first pre-defined threshold and the round trip times fall belowa second pre-defined threshold, the file access node 130 may determinethe number of the file portions to be served to the client computingdevice 120. In an illustrative example, the file access node 130 maydetermine the number of file portions to be served as being proportionalto the ratio of the difference of the available network bandwidth andthe first pre-defined threshold to the file portion size. Responsive toestimating the number of the file portions to be served, the file accessnode 130 may return (245) to the client computing device a list ofidentifiers of the file portions that the file access node 130 isprepared to serve. In an illustrative example, the file access node 130may randomly generate the requisite number of identifiers of the fileportions, thus minimizing the probability of the client computing devicereceiving the same or substantially similar lists of file portionidentifiers from two or more file access nodes 130.

Responsive to receiving the list of the file portion identifiers, theclient computing device 120 may identify the file portions that it stillis missing, and transmit to the corresponding file access node 130 afile portion download request (250) specifying the identified fileportions. The file access node 130 may respond (255) by transmitting therequested file portion to the client computing device 120. In anillustrative example, the file access node 130 may retrieve therequested file portion from the local cache. Alternatively, responsiveto failing to retrieve the requested file portion from the local cache,the file access node 130 may stream the requested file portion from thefile storage service to the client computing device 120, whileoptionally storing in the local cache the file portion being streamed.The workflow terminates when the client computing device 120 determinesthat it has all the portions of the requested file.

In certain implementations, the control node 130C may perform real-timemonitoring of the workload of the plurality of file access nodes 130. Inan illustrative example, responsive to determining that the workload ofone or more file access nodes 130 exceeds a certain threshold value, thecontrol node 130 may initiate provisioning of one or more additionalfile access nodes (e.g., switch one or more standby file access nodes toan active state and/or configure new hosts for acting as file accessnodes). The workload may be estimated using peak or aggregated values ofone or more performance metrics, including, for example, the utilizednetwork bandwidth, the CPU load, the utilized disk space, etc.

In certain implementations, the control node 130 may prevent the overallsystem performance deterioration by initiating provisioning of one ormore additional file access nodes in anticipation of a spike in theclient activity. In an illustrative example, the control node maypredict the file access nodes workload level based on analyzing historicdata reflecting the workload of one or more file access nodes.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow diagram of one illustrative example of method 300of facilitating access to files that are stored by network-accessiblefile storage services, in accordance with one or more aspects of thepresent disclosure. Method 300 and/or each of its individual functions,routines, subroutines, or operations may be performed by one or moreprocessing devices of the computer system (e.g., the control node 130Cof FIG. 1) implementing the method. In certain implementations, method300 may be performed by a single processing thread. Alternatively,method 300 may be performed by two or more processing threads, eachthread executing one or more individual functions, routines,subroutines, or operations of the method. In an illustrative example,the processing threads implementing method 300 may be synchronized(e.g., using semaphores, critical sections, and/or other threadsynchronization mechanisms). Alternatively, the processing threadsimplementing method 300 may be executed asynchronously with respect toeach other. In various illustrative examples, at least some of theoperations described herein as being performed by the control node 130,may be performed by other components of the example distributed computersystem 100.

At block 310, a processing device of a control node implementing themethod may receive a file access request initiated by a client computingdevice. The file access request may comprises a file identifier, a filestorage service identifier, and an access token associated with the filestored by the file storage service, as described in more details hereinabove.

At block 320, the processing device of the control node may request,using the access token, the metadata associated with the file from thefile storage service. The file metadata may include the file size andother parameters of the file, as described in more details herein above.

At block 330, the processing device of the control node may define,using the received file metadata, a plurality of portions forming thefile. In an illustrative example, all file portions except for the lastone may have the same size, which may be provided by a pre-determinevalue of by a configurable parameter. Each file portion may beidentified by its ordinal number in the sequence of file portions of agiven file and/or by the offset of the respective portion relative tothe top of the file, as described in more details herein above.

At block 340, the processing device of the control node may identify aplurality of file access nodes that may be employed to serve portions ofthe file to the requesting client computing device. In an illustrativeexample, the processing device may identify a certain number of fileaccess nodes that currently have the minimal, among all nodes, workload.In yet another illustrative example, the processing device may identifya subset of the file access nodes that are geographically closest to therequesting client computing device. The number of control nodes may bedetermined based on the file size, e.g., by dividing the file size by apre-determined value. In yet another illustrative example, theprocessing device may look up a hash table mapping file identifiers tofile access node identifiers. In yet another illustrative example, thecontrol node may identify all available file access nodes, as describedin more details herein above.

At block 350, the processing device of the control node may forward thefile metadata and the file access token to the plurality of file accessnodes. The file metadata may include the file size, the size of aportion of the file to be transmitted to the client computing device,and/or a list of identifiers of the file portions, as described in moredetails herein above.

At block 360, the processing device of the control node may cause thelist of identifiers of the plurality of file access nodes to betransmitted to the client computing device. In an illustrative example,the control node may transmit the list to the cloud infrastructurebrokers for forwarding to the requesting client computing device, asdescribed in more details herein above. Responsive to completingoperations described with reference to block 360, the method mayterminate.

FIG. 4 depicts a flow diagram of one illustrative example of method 400of facilitating access to files that are stored by network-accessiblefile storage services, in accordance with one or more aspects of thepresent disclosure. Method 400 and/or each of its individual functions,routines, subroutines, or operations may be performed by one or moreprocessing devices of the computer system (e.g., a file access node 130of FIG. 1) implementing the method. In certain implementations, method400 may be performed by a single processing thread. Alternatively,method 400 may be performed by two or more processing threads, eachthread executing one or more individual functions, routines,subroutines, or operations of the method. In an illustrative example,the processing threads implementing method 400 may be synchronized(e.g., using semaphores, critical sections, and/or other threadsynchronization mechanisms). Alternatively, the processing threadsimplementing method 400 may be executed asynchronously with respect toeach other. In various illustrative examples, at least some of theoperations described herein as being performed by the control node 140,may be performed by other components of the example distributed computersystem 100.

At block 410, a processing device of a file access node implementing themethod may receive a file access request originated by a clientcomputing device. The file access request may comprises a fileidentifier, a file storage service identifier, and an access tokenassociated with the file stored by the file storage service, asdescribed in more details herein above.

At block 420, the processing device of the file access node mayidentify, using the file metadata supplied by the file access request,one or more portions of the file to be served to the client computingdevice. In an illustrative example, the processing device may optionallyascertain whether any of the file portions are stored in the localcache. Additionally or alternatively, the processing device maydetermine the number of file portions that it may stream to the clientcomputing device without deteriorating own performance metrics beyondcertain pre-determined thresholds. In an illustrative example, theprocessing device may determine the number of file portions to be servedas being proportional to the ratio of the difference of the availablenetwork bandwidth and the first pre-defined threshold to the fileportion size, as described in more details herein above.

At block 430, the processing device of the file access node maytransmitting, to the requesting client computing device, a responsecomprising identifiers of the file portions that the file access node isprepared to serve. In an illustrative example, the processing device mayrandomly generate the requisite number of identifiers of the fileportions, thus minimizing the probability of the client computing devicereceiving the same or substantially similar lists of file portionidentifiers from two or more file access nodes, as described in moredetails herein above.

At block 440, the processing device of the file access node may receivea file portion download request initiated by the client computingdevice. The request may specify one or more file portion identifiers, asdescribed in more details herein above.

At block 450, the processing device of the file access node may transmitthe requested file portions to the client computing device. In anillustrative example, the file access node may retrieve the requestedfile portion from the local cache. Alternatively, responsive to failingto retrieve the requested file portion from the local cache, the fileaccess node may stream the requested file portion from the file storageservice to the client computing device, while optionally storing in thelocal cache the file portion being streamed, as described in moredetails herein above. Responsive to completing operations described withreference to block 450, the method may terminate.

FIG. 5 depicts a flow diagram of one illustrative example of methodperformed by a client computing device for accessing files that arestored by network-accessible file storage services, in accordance withone or more aspects of the present disclosure. Method 500 and/or each ofits individual functions, routines, subroutines, or operations may beperformed by one or more processing devices of the computer system(e.g., the client computing device 120 of FIG. 1) implementing themethod. In certain implementations, method 500 may be performed by asingle processing thread. Alternatively, method 500 may be performed bytwo or more processing threads, each thread executing one or moreindividual functions, routines, subroutines, or operations of themethod. In an illustrative example, the processing threads implementingmethod 500 may be synchronized (e.g., using semaphores, criticalsections, and/or other thread synchronization mechanisms).Alternatively, the processing threads implementing method 500 may beexecuted asynchronously with respect to each other. In variousillustrative examples, at least some of the operations described hereinas being performed by the control node 150, may be performed by othercomponents of the example distributed computer system 100.

At block 510, a processing device of a client computing deviceimplementing the method may transmit a file access request to a cloudinfrastructure broker. The file access request may comprises a fileidentifier, a file storage service identifier, and an access tokenassociated with the file stored by the file storage service, asdescribed in more details herein above.

At block 520, the processing device of the client computing device mayreceive, from the cloud infrastructure broker, a list a plurality offile access nodes that are prepared to serve portions of the requestedfile, as described in more details herein above.

At block 530, the processing device of the client computing device mayselect, from the received list, one or more file access nodes forfurther requesting portions of the file, as described in more detailsherein above. In certain implementations, the processing device may pingthe file access nodes and select one or more nodes demonstrating thebest response time. In another illustrative example, the processingdevice may select one or more nodes associated with the networkconnections having the maximum available bandwidth among the networkconnections to the plurality of file access nodes, as described in moredetails herein above.

The operations described with references to blocks 540-560 may beperformed, sequentially or in parallel, independently andasynchronously, with respect to one or more of the selected file accessnodes.

At block 540, the processing device of the client computing device mayrequest, from the selected file access node, a list of availableportions of the file, as described in more details herein above.

At block 550, the processing device of the client computing device mayrequest, from the selected file access node, a portion of the filereferenced by the list of available portions, as described in moredetails herein above.

At block 560, the processing device of the client computing device mayreceive, from the selected file access node, the requested portion ofthe file, as described in more details herein above.

Responsive to determining, at block 570, that all portions of the filehave been successfully received, the method may terminate; otherwise,the method may loop back to block 550.

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates a component diagram of an examplecomputer system 1000 which may perform any one or more of the methodsdescribed herein. In various illustrative examples, computer system 1000may represent a client computing device 120, a file access node 130, ora cloud infrastructure broker 150 of FIG. 1.

Example computer system 1000 may be connected to other computer systemsin a LAN, an intranet, an extranet, and/or the Internet. Computer system1000 may operate in the capacity of a server in a client-server networkenvironment. Computer system 1000 may be a personal computer (PC), aset-top box (STB), a server, a network router, switch or bridge, or anydevice capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential orotherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that device. Further,while only a single example computer system is illustrated, the term“computer” shall also be taken to include any collection of computersthat individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) ofinstructions to perform any one or more of the methods discussed herein.

Example computer system 1000 may comprise a processing device 1002 (alsoreferred to as a processor or CPU), a main memory 1004 (e.g., read-onlymemory (ROM), flash memory, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) such assynchronous DRAM (SDRAM), etc.), a static memory 1006 (e.g., flashmemory, static random access memory (SRAM), etc.), and a secondarymemory (e.g., a data storage device 1018), which may communicate witheach other via a bus 1030.

Processing device 1002 represents one or more general-purpose processingdevices such as a microprocessor, central processing unit, or the like.More particularly, processing device 1002 may be a complex instructionset computing (CISC) microprocessor, reduced instruction set computing(RISC) microprocessor, very long instruction word (VLIW) microprocessor,processor implementing other instruction sets, or processorsimplementing a combination of instruction sets. Processing device 1002may also be one or more special-purpose processing devices such as anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmablegate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor (DSP), network processor,or the like. In accordance with one or more aspects of the presentdisclosure, processing device 1002 may be configured to executeinstructions implementing methods 300, 400 and/or 500 for facilitatingaccess to files that are stored by network-accessible file storageservices.

Example computer system 1000 may further comprise a network interfacedevice 1008, which may be communicatively coupled to a network 1020.Example computer system 1000 may further comprise a video display 1010(e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD), a touch screen, or a cathode raytube (CRT)), an alphanumeric input device 1012 (e.g., a keyboard), acursor control device 1014 (e.g., a mouse), and an acoustic signalgeneration device 1016 (e.g., a speaker).

Data storage device 1018 may include a computer-readable storage medium(or more specifically a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium)1028 on which is stored one or more sets of executable instructions1026. In accordance with one or more aspects of the present disclosure,executable instructions 1026 may comprise executable instructionsencoding various functions of methods 300, 400 and/or 500 forfacilitating access to files that are stored by network-accessible filestorage services.

Executable instructions 1026 may also reside, completely or at leastpartially, within main memory 1004 and/or within processing device 1002during execution thereof by example computer system 1000, main memory1004 and processing device 1002 also constituting computer-readablestorage media. Executable instructions 1026 may further be transmittedor received over a network via network interface device 1008.

While computer-readable storage medium 1028 is shown in FIG. 6 as asingle medium, the term “computer-readable storage medium” should betaken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralizedor distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) thatstore the one or more sets of VM operating instructions. The term“computer-readable storage medium” shall also be taken to include anymedium that is capable of storing or encoding a set of instructions forexecution by the machine that cause the machine to perform any one ormore of the methods described herein. The term “computer-readablestorage medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not belimited to, solid-state memories, and optical and magnetic media.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions above are presented in termsof algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on data bitswithin a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise, as apparent from the followingdiscussion, it is appreciated that throughout the description,discussions utilizing terms such as “identifying,” “determining,”“storing,” “adjusting,” “causing,” “returning,” “comparing,” “creating,”“stopping,” “loading,” “copying,” “throwing,” “replacing,” “performing,”or the like, refer to the action and processes of a computer system, orsimilar electronic computing device, that manipulates and transformsdata represented as physical (electronic) quantities within the computersystem's registers and memories into other data similarly represented asphysical quantities within the computer system memories or registers orother such information storage, transmission or display devices.

Examples of the present disclosure also relate to an apparatus forperforming the methods described herein. This apparatus may be speciallyconstructed for the required purposes, or it may be a general purposecomputer system selectively programmed by a computer program stored inthe computer system. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but not limited to, any type of diskincluding optical disks, CD-ROMs, and magnetic-optical disks, read-onlymemories (ROMs), random access memories (RAMs), EPROMs, EEPROMs,magnetic disk storage media, optical storage media, flash memorydevices, other type of machine-accessible storage media, or any type ofmedia suitable for storing electronic instructions, each coupled to acomputer system bus.

The methods and displays presented herein are not inherently related toany particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct a more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear as set forth in thedescription below. In addition, the scope of the present disclosure isnot limited to any particular programming language. It will beappreciated that a variety of programming languages may be used toimplement the teachings of the present disclosure.

It is to be understood that the above description is intended to beillustrative, and not restrictive. Many other implementation exampleswill be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading andunderstanding the above description. Although the present disclosuredescribes specific examples, it will be recognized that the systems andmethods of the present disclosure are not limited to the examplesdescribed herein, but may be practiced with modifications within thescope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the specification anddrawings are to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than arestrictive sense. The scope of the present disclosure should,therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, alongwith the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a computersystem implementing a control node, a file access request initiated by aclient computing device, wherein the file access request comprises anidentifier of a file, an identifier of a file storage service, and anaccess token associated with the file stored by the file storageservice; requesting, using the access token, metadata associated withthe file from the file storage service; defining, using the metadata, aplurality of portions forming the file; identifying a plurality of fileaccess nodes associated with the file storage service, wherein a numberof the file access nodes is determined based on a size of the file; andforwarding, to the plurality of file access nodes, identifiers of theplurality of portions.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:causing a transmission of the identifiers of the plurality of fileaccess nodes to the client computing device.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein identifying the plurality of file access nodes comprisesperforming a lookup in a hash table mapping file identifiers to fileaccess node identifiers.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the metadataassociated with the file includes the size of the file.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein an identifier of a portion is represented by a bytepositions defining an offset of the portion relative to a top of thefile.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computer system is furtherconfigured to act as a file access node of the plurality of the fileaccess nodes, the method further comprising: identifying, in view of acurrent workload of the file access node, one or more portions of thefile to be served to the client computing device; and transmitting, tothe client computing device, a response comprising identifiers of theportions.
 7. The method of claim 1, further comprising: causing, basedon monitoring current workloads of the plurality of file access nodes, anew file access node to be provisioned.
 8. The method of claim 1,further comprising: causing, based on historical data reflectingworkloads of the plurality of file access nodes, a new file access nodeto be provisioned.
 9. A method, comprising: receiving, by a file accessnode, a file access request originated by a client computing device, thefile access request comprising an identifier of a file; identifying, inview of metadata associated with the file, a plurality of portions ofthe file to be served to the client computing device, wherein a numberof the portions of the file is determined based on an available networkbandwidth between the file access node and the client computing device;and transmitting, to the client computing device, a response comprisingidentifiers of the portions of the file.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein the identifiers of the plurality of portions of the file arerepresented by byte positions defining an offset of a respective portionrelative to a top of the file.
 11. The method of claim 9, whereinidentifying the portions of the file is performed based on a currentworkload of the file access node.
 12. The method of claim 9, whereinidentifying the portions of the file comprises inspecting a local cacheof the file access node.
 13. The method of claim 9, further comprising:receiving, from the client computing device, a portion download requestidentifying a portion of the file; retrieving the portion of the filefrom a local cache; and transmitting the portion of the file to theclient computing device.
 14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:receiving, from the client computing device, a portion download requestidentifying a portion of the file; and streaming the portion of the filefrom a file storage service to the client computing device.
 15. Themethod of claim 14, wherein the streaming the portion of the filecomprises storing the portion of the file in a local cache.
 16. Asystem, comprising: a memory; and a processor coupled to the memory,wherein the processor is configured to: receive a file access requestinitiated by a client computing device, wherein the file access requestcomprises an identifier of a file, an identifier of a file storageservice, and an access token associated with the file stored by the filestorage service; request, using the access token, metadata associatedwith the file from the file storage service; define, using the metadata,a plurality of portions forming the file; identify a plurality of fileaccess nodes associated with the file storage service, wherein a numberof the file access nodes is determined based on a size of the file; andforward, to the plurality of file access nodes, identifiers of theplurality of portions.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processoris further configured to: forward, to the client computing device,identifiers of the plurality of file access nodes.
 18. A method,comprising: transmitting, by a client computing device, a file accessrequest comprising an identifier of a file, an identifier of a filestorage service, and an access token associated with the file stored bythe file storage service; receiving identifiers of a plurality of fileaccess nodes associated with the file storage service; selecting, basedon evaluating a network bandwidth between the client computing deviceand a file access node, the file access node of the plurality of fileaccess nodes; requesting, from the selected file access node, a list ofavailable portions of the file; requesting, from the selected fileaccess node, a portion of the file referenced by the list of availableportions; and receiving, from the selected file access node, therequested portion of the file.
 19. The method of claim 18, whereinselecting the file access node further comprises: evaluating a responsetime by the file access node.